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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28555008">The Caress of a Needle</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Istelle/pseuds/Istelle'>Istelle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Original work - Freeform, This Was Supposed To Be A One Shot</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:08:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28555008</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Istelle/pseuds/Istelle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His regular walk home from work turned into a frantic search for his umbrella, which turned into him discovering a parallel universe.<br/>What had gone wrong?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Caress of a Needle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Too much rain, too much rain. Why did it always have to rain on his way home from work? Lucas fumbled with his extremely battered and almost five year old umbrella as he walked across the bridge. The wind was strongest at this point, since the bridge stretched across the wide river and the beams above his head were not much help in blocking the wind or rain for that matter. </p><p>He finally managed to get the umbrella working, but as it sprung up the umbrella flew out of the tight grip of his hands and the wind carried it into the river. Lucas yelled and ran towards the edge of the bridge, gripping the railing in frustration. </p><p>“Dammit!” he shouted. His day was really not going well. And now, the few people who were walking past him on the bridge stared at him in pity. He didn’t want any of that, god if they were going to gawk at him like he was an animal in a display at a zoo then they should at least give him their umbrellas.</p><p>Lucas hit the railing of the bridge with both his hands and reached up to his face to wipe at least some water out of his eyes. He was a mere man of twenty-one, working a regular day job at a sports store that was fifteen minutes away from his apartment on foot. He had taken the job mainly out of convenience, since he didn’t have to pay for public transport but the weather hadn’t ever crossed his mind. He should have been more prepared for situations like this. </p><p>The rain was still pelting down as Lucas continued on his journey home, he still had at least a seven or eight minute walk left. As he reached the end of the bridge, he spared a glance at his pitiful umbrella that should have been floating down the river at this point, but when he looked it had seemed to vanish. </p><p>“The hell” he muttered and went to stand by the bridge railing once again. Indeed, the umbrella had completely disappeared. It was like someone had just come and taken it, which was impossible, it was in the middle of a river of course. Lucas scoffed at himself, as if someone had just taken it, the umbrella was probably just under the bridge. Even though the river didn’t flow that way. </p><p>As more people continued to pass Lucas by, they stared at him and most tried to find out what he was looking at but gave up when they remembered that the rain was still pelting down. </p><p>Lucas was so intent on looking for the umbrella that he didn’t notice the older woman calling him. </p><p>“Young man, young man?!” she said, louder the second time. </p><p>Lucas finally heard her and looked to see the woman giving him a concerned look. </p><p>Lucas glanced around making sure it was him that the lady was talking to, “Oh, sorry I was just looking for...something in the river? Anyway is there anything that you need, uh...ma’am?”. Lucas’s words were rushed, with too many pauses as he frantically tried to come up with a reason for why he was staring at the river in the pouring rain. It was proving difficult.</p><p>“Oh no need for the formalities, I was just concerned for you. Your clothes are soaked and the rain is only getting worse, you should move along”. The woman seemed kind but there was a hint of sarcasm in her words. </p><p>She held her umbrella over her left shoulder, but it was titled enough backwards that the rain poured down the front of her hair, meaning her bangs were dripping wet. She didn’t seem to care or notice but Lucas felt like suggesting that she use her umbrella properly before telling him to ‘move along’ out of the rain in such a condescending tone. </p><p>Tch, old people these days. </p><p>“What were you looking for in the river anyways, young man?” the woman asked with only a hint of kindness this time. Her condescending tone had seemed to take over. </p><p>“Oh it’s truly fine ma’am, I’ll be getting a move on now but thank you for the concern”. Lucas’s tone was kinder than the old woman’s. He was used to dealing with these kinds of people, he worked in retail after all. </p><p>The rain was still pouring down on them as they spoke, but neither seemed to care. </p><p>“Okay son, I’ll be on my way. Take care of yourself and try not to get any wetter!”. <br/>Lucas flashed a fake smile and threw a thumbs up in response. The old lady’s use of the word ‘son’ made him want to throw up everything he had eaten that day off the bridge. </p><p>Right before she left she placed her right hand on his shoulder and smiled up at him, then she continued on her way. </p><p>“Odd” Lucas muttered to himself  as she walked away. </p><p>At this point he had been standing in the same spot for about ten minutes so he was utterly soaked. He didn’t care, he wanted to find out what had happened to his umbrella. No matter how shitty the thing was, this was a mystery he wanted to solve. </p><p>He finally looked back to the river and danced his eyes across every inch of it once again, scanning for any sign of the object that had turned his already bad day into an even worse one.</p><p>Lucas sighed, he should give up at this stage. He could buy a new one on the way home anyway. </p><p>Lucas was about to turn away before he saw the sight that was about to inevitably change his world for the better. <br/>A girl was standing on the river with his umbrella in hand, admiring it and turning it over in her hands as if it was a prized gem. </p><p>She was wearing completely inappropriate clothing for the current weather, a light pink dress with short sleeves that tightened at the waist and went down to her knees. She had light red hair that flowed half way down her back and cascaded over her face. She wore no shoes and was barefoot as she stood on the flowing river. Her face was dawned with light pink jewels, the type that young girls might stick on their faces at parties except these ones looked as if they were embedded into her face and were there to stay.<br/>The most noticeable thing was the black needle that seemed to be stuck in her left cheek. It looked like it had been implanted there. </p><p>Lucas was still in shock even as he began to yell down at the girl.</p><p>“Hey you! The girl down there! How the hell are you doing that and why do you have my umbrella?!”.</p><p>Lucas yelled with such force that the girl on the river jumped and dropped it, leaving the umbrella to flow down the river once more. <br/>She looked up at him with a horrified expression. She said something, but it was far too quiet for Lucas to hear at the distance he was away from her. </p><p>All bystanders were staring at Lucas now, and there were mutters of him needing to go back to the mental hospital he came from, because there was no one to be seen in the river that he was yelling at. </p><p>Lucas looked at the people around him,</p><p>“Wait, you guys can’t see her? But look she’s clearly there, the girl in the pink dress that’s standing on the river! She’s right there!”, Lucas shouted while pointing at the girl. <br/>A woman nearby with her children quickly shielded them and walked at a fast pace away from Lucas, terrified that he would start attacking people next. The others around him started to do the same and quickly walked away from him not bothering to say another word about him for their own sakes.</p><p>Lucas stood there for a moment, shocked that nobody else could see the girl that was quite literally walking on water. He turned back to the river to look at the girl but she was gone.</p><p>Lucas nearly started yelling again but was cut off when a strong pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders.</p><p>“How the hell can you see me?!”. </p><p>It was the girl. Instead of being on the water she was now standing in front of Lucas with an exasperated look on her face. </p><p>Lucas jumped back from the touch like a cat and quickly ran backwards.</p><p>“How-How the hell did you get up here? You were just...a minute ago you were-“</p><p>“I know, I know I will explain in a minute but please tell me how you can see me?!”.</p><p>The girls plea’s were desperate and Lucas quickly felt bad for not answering her prior question immediately, even though he had every right to ask her how the hell she had been able to pull that stunt earlier. </p><p>“I-I don’t know. Isn’t it normal for people to be able to see each other?”, was his answer.</p><p>“Well you saw earlier that other bystanders couldn’t see me at all, so is it normal?” the girl questioned.</p><p>The sudden cryptic question threw Lucas off and he backed away even more impulsively. </p><p>“Who exactly are you?” he asked.</p><p>“I could ask you the same thing, the fact that you can actually see me is insane. Do you know how long I’ve waited? The days I spent doing all kinds of inappropriate things to try and get people's attention and nobody noticed! And then the one day I do something out of self indulgence I actually get noticed! Ha, the irony of it all!”, the girl threw up her hands in the air as she yelled. </p><p>Lucas stood there, dumbfounded as he listened to the girl. </p><p>“And just in case you still don't believe that other people cannot see me, I shall prove it to you good sir”. </p><p>The girl skipped across the bridge and attempted to get each passerby’s attention. She waved her hands in front of theirs faces, flicked at their noses, pulled their hair or even played with their dogs who seemed to be the only living things that could notice her presence, aside from Lucas of course. </p><p>It seemed that they could not feel a single thing that she was doing to them. It was like she wasn’t even there, like she was invisible. </p><p>“Alright, alright I get it. You can stop abusing innocent citizens now, okay?”. <br/>As Lucas started talking freely to the girl he got more stares but at this point it didn’t matter, they could think he was insane for all he cared.</p><p>The girl walked up to him and flicked his nose with her right hand.</p><p>Lucas rubbed his nose, “Um what the hell was that for?”. </p><p>“Well, now I officially know that you can indeed see me” </p><p>“You knew that before!”</p><p>“Okay, maybe I just wanted to flick you on the nose” </p><p>“Huh?!”</p><p>“Anyway! My name is Ymir! And I am invisible to the majority of the general public! Except for you apparently. If I’m honest I am a little disappointed, I hoped that the first person who was able to see me would at least be somewhat attractive”</p><p>“If you don’t-“</p><p>“Okay I guess I should move on the my explanation of why I was standing on the water, well I saw the umbrella and I thought it looked cool cause I hadn’t seen an umbrella like that in so long and it looked pretty and old and-“</p><p>“STOP!” </p><p>Ymir took in a breath and stopped her rant,</p><p>“What? I was just getting to the good part.”</p><p>Lucas suddenly didn’t feel bad about not answering her when she had asked her first question earlier. </p><p>“I obviously don’t want to know why you were interested in my umbrella, I want to know how you were able to walk on water in the first place!”</p><p>“Oh that was your umbrella? Yikes sorry about letting it float-“</p><p>“Ymir!”</p><p>“Okay, okay!” Ymir sighed, her demeanour suddenly growing serious,  “To start off, I have no idea how you can see me since they made sure that nobody could” </p><p>She pointed to the needle that was stuck in her cheek, </p><p>“This thing right here stops people from seeing me on this side of the Parallel. The odd time when I’m allowed to come over here, I have to put it in. It also alerts them if I try to pull it out and attempt to escape” </p><p>Lucas stated at Ymir, mouth gaping open. He really hadn’t envisioned his day to plan out like this when he woke up this morning. </p><p>“Any questions so far?” was what Ymir said. </p><p>“Any-Any questions? That was like some kind of information overload! How am I supposed to process that!” </p><p>“Well yes I suppose it would be hard for you to understand. I’ll start off by saying that our world is split in two, there’s this side and the other. The sides don’t have names, but the whole thing is called the Parallel. The name explains our world's main premise I suppose. This side and the other are parallel to each but they are not the same, in any way” </p><p>Ymir continued, “There's no way in hell I should be saying this but, around six months ago I was kidnapped by some people from the other side of the Parallel and taken to their side. They have kept me there, and have been doing countless amounts of experiments on me. They believe that we who live on this side of the Parallel, where we are now, are different in some ways to them. They want to experiment on a select few of us, and determine whether their hypothesis is correct. That’s all I’ve gathered in my time there, they told me nothing when they took me. I’ve had to figure it out myself.” </p><p>Ymir paused, expecting Lucas to say something in response to all that she had said. But Lucas just stood there, staring waiting for more. </p><p>So Ymir continued once more, “Thankfully, they have left me go back home once every month, but with this needle in my cheek to make sure I don’t attempt to find a way to stay here permanently” </p><p>They stayed quiet for a few moments, Ymir let Lucas collect his thoughts. Lucas swallowed,</p><p>“In this parallel side of our world, can they walk on water too?”</p><p>Ymir scoffed, “I tell you that I was literally kidnapped by these people and that’s your first response? Ugh anyway, yes they can and they can do many other things also. The other side has the same layout as ours, the terrain is the same and buildings are all in the same spots there as they are here. But everything there is aged back about a hundred years. They have extremely old cars and clothing and everything just looks different. Plus the added effect of walking on water and doing all kinds of super power type things” </p><p>If it had been a regular day, Lucas would not have believed a word of this. But he had seen it, he had seen this girl walk on water. That was enough to make everything else she had mentioned seem like a possibility.</p><p>“Why did they take you? And how?” was what Lucas asked next.</p><p>“Oh, so you are actually concerned for me? That’s nice but if I’m honest I barely remember how they took me, one minute I was sitting at my desk staring out my window, the next I was slung over someone’s back and walking through a portal into what seemed like a parallel universe”, Ymir sighed, “As for why they took me, I have no clue. But if I have any idea of what these people are like, it’s not stupid. If they were to just ship a huge amount of the population of this city into their side, there would be uproar and alarm bells would be set off in political leaders' heads. It would be too obvious a stunt, but if you take people little by little, in small clusters who’s gonna notice that? A few missing persons cases never bothered nobody!” </p><p>“But how are you able to use the abilities that they have? You’re not from there.” </p><p>“Simple, I learned. I had to adapt pretty quickly to living over there even though they barely let me outside the main facility. The abilities are used so commonly by people there, it’s as simple to them as tying your shoelace or brushing your teeth” </p><p>“What kind of experiments do they do on you?”</p><p>“Mainly physical training ones. I’m never a hundred percent certain on what’s going on when they perform the experiments because they never tell me the purpose of them. They only tell me what to do with my body. Although there have been experiments where the took a look inside my actual body-“</p><p>“What?!”</p><p>“Yeah, they performed strange surgeries on me. I always woke up with strange scars where they stitched me up. They have crazy good anaesthesia over there so I never felt a thing, but it was still a crazy feeling to know that had delved their hands into my organs” </p><p>At this point Ymir was sitting on the railing of the bridge, and the rain had finally stopped. Lucas stood there, mouth agape. It was too much information to process, there was too much information he didn’t want to process. Human experiments done by people from a parallel side of their world? Kidnapping? Crazy powers that allowed you to act like Jesus? What was he supposed to do with all this? </p><p>“You’re probably overwhelmed right now, I know. But you did ask” </p><p>“I am overwhelmed, but I guess I’m glad you told me. But what the hell do I do now?”</p><p>“Well, I suppose we should find out why you are able to see me and talk to me”. Ymir hopped off the bridged railing and approached Lucas fully. She studied him, looking him up and down.</p><p>“There’s nothing particularly special about you really. Nothing I can sense that would indicate why you are able to see me”</p><p>“I appreciate the compliment” </p><p>“No problem”</p><p>Suddenly Ymir stopped in her study of Lucas and looked at something behind him. She glanced at it but then did a double take and her eyes widened in what seemed like fear. </p><p>“What? Ymir what’s wrong?” </p><p>“We have to leave, now!” </p><p>Ymir grabbed Lucas’s hand and quickly started running in the opposite direction of what she saw. </p><p>“Huh? Why are we-“</p><p>“Don’t question it just run with me! Seriously we’ll be dead if you don’t hurry up!” </p><p>Lucas sighed and started to run at Ymir’s pace. He glanced behind him to see what they were running from in the first place. </p><p>The only person standing there was the woman with the tilted umbrella that he had encountered earlier that day.</p>
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